The Writer's Craft
by Choco
Summary: It's a Mallory/Jessi, and yes it's a f/f story- but no smut, not yet. A stressful night babysitting for the Pike's leads to the admission of latent feelings....


"The Writer's Craft" 

Disclaimer: No I don't own them, and I don't wish that I did. If the f/f pairing makes you uncomfortable, you are welcome to leave. To the rest of you, have a nice day, and enjoy! ^_^ 

. . . 

"Mmph... Mal, maybe we should wait- " 

"We can't! They'll be home any minute- ah!" 

The two babysitters were presently bent over a pool of tepid water in the Pike's bathroom, trying to dislodge a toy one of the younger siblings had used to plug up the drain. Claire, probably, since she was sick and houseridden and undoubtedly bored. Now that their charges were fast asleep- except for the triplets, who were sleeping over at a friend's house- they were trying to dislodge it before Mr. and Mrs. Pike returned, without much success. Soap-slick fingers slipped over the rubber duck, and it didn't look as though either girl would be getting a firm grip on the toy anytime soon. 

"Mal! I think I have it!" Jessi suddenly exclaimed excitedly. 

Mallor's freckled, wan, sweaty face then bore an expression of palpable excitement. "Really?" 

"Yes- I think- yes, I've got it! Pull me back, I can pull it out if you- " 

"Okay. Um..." Mallory bit her bottom lip and looked at her struggling friend. She was wrenching at some nameless shape below the water; pulling and tugging, groaning and sweating. With her fair share of reluctance (and embarrassment her prepubescent mind couldn't fathom), she wrapped her arms around Jessi's middle and _pulled_- 

The toy became dislodged with a great popping sound, followed by a mercifully more subtle sucking sound as the colorless water sped its way down into the damp and the dark of the pipes coiled around the house. Momentum sent Jessi back into her friend, both girls crashing into the tiles below with a teeth-grinding thud. Giggling insanely, her front sopping wet with soapy water, Jessi held up the toy clenched in a fist the color of pale coffee. 

Mal writhed under her friend, struggling to breathe. The added weight pressed agonizingly into her diaphram, her chest, endlessly constricting and suffocating. "Great work, Jessi!" Mal wheezed, exultant despite her position. "Um... could you get off of me, please?" 

Jessi looked down at her friend as though noticing her for the first time. Surely if she had a lighter complexion she would have blushed, but she darkened anyway. "Oh! Yeah, sorry about that." She rose to her feet in a single graceful movement that made Mallory burn with envy- and took her breath away, as well. She was lean and limber, comfortable and easy in her skin, as behooved the ballerina in her. When her parents allowed her to date, she'd attract plenty of boys. 

Probably others, as well. 

Brushing dust off the knees of her jeans, Jessi put the dripping rubber duck on the side of the tub with a rueful shake of her head. "I can't believe it took us that long to pull out a toy. I love kids sure, but sometimes they can drive you crazy!" 

Mallory laughed. "Tell me about it. Try living with _these_ guys every day of every week of every month of every year- I feel like I need to go to an asylum sometimes!" 

Jessi shuddered. "I'm so glad that Becca and Squirt aren't so- wild. No offense, but where did they get it from?" 

Mallory shrugged. "I have no idea," she admitted. "Mom and Dad are nothing like the triplets or Margo or Claire- sometimes I think they're adopted!" 

Jessi laughed, and it was laughter that was as sustaining as the god's ichor to Mallory. It felt good to be alone again, talking, just the two of them. Old man winter had arrived, and lately the two of them just had no time together as friends! They were endlessly sitting, and although the extra money was nice it wasn't enough to make up for the gaping, whistling hole usually filled by their friendship. The older girls sympathized, and tried to put them together on sitting jobs when there were four kids or more that needed to be taken care of, whenever possible. Sure, they got to stay together during the meetings three times a week, but a half an hour was simply not enough to catch up on everything, just to... talk. Normally less, thanks to the domineering nature of Kristy. But now, they had the better part of an evening to themselves, and Mallory was glad. 

Mallory climbed to her feet as well, albeit a lot less gracefully than her best friend, breathed in and out without much pain and was glad for it. "I just got a new _Saddle Club_ book," she proclaimed proudly. Around them, the house groaned and creaked as it settled, almost wholly silent save for the sleepy grunts coming from the parted lips of Mallory's siblings every now and then. "Want me to go get it? We could read it- together." She looked imploringly at her friend. 

Jessi bit a plush bottom lip, as though trying to resolve a dilemma. "Well, I have some homework to do, for that horrible math class- but I'll have time to do it when I get home. So, yeah." Her stormy expression cleared, replaced by a broad, wide smile. 

"We can go into the rec room, since Vanessa is asleep in my room," Mallory explained. "I'll go get it; you can wait for me there." After seeing Jessi's agreeable nod, she slipped and slid her way across the slick tile, gratefully reaching the carpet of the hallway swiftly. With all the stealth of a cat she crept into her room and snatched the glossiest book off of her well-tended bookcase, and careful not to disturb the softly snoring Vanessa made a hasty exit. 

It seemed to take her forever to reach the rec room, and each footstep seemed thunderously loud. Even the monotonous ticking of the grandfather clock in the parlor sounded like thunder walking and talking. She sent a cursory glance to that clock. It was almost nine- where were her parents? Just before they had begun wrenching out the uncooperative toy her parents had called, told the sitters that they would be home in just a few minutes. It had been considerably longer than a few minutes. Mallory shrugged, and descended the stairs leading to the rec room. It was nothing to cry over. Surely they couldn't be much longer, and they would be waiting. 

Jessi was indeed waiting for her when she arrived in the rec room, book clenched in one clammy hand. She had taken off her shoes, leaning back on the couch, her legs folded primly below her, a position Mallory could never attain. She looked very cozy. "Do you have it?" she asked eagerly. 

"Right here," Mallory answered automatically, proudly holding up the new copy that still smelled of the press. A beautiful horse with a glittering grey coat was depicted on its cover. She took a seat close to Jessi, and folded back the front cover. "I haven't even read it yet," she admitted bashfully. "I was hoping we could... well, I got it so that we could read it together." 

She thought that, at the very least, Jessi would laugh in her face but she did not. She leaned in close, so close that Mallory could smell the fresh and clean scent of her mouth. "That's very thoughtful of you. I know how much it must have cost you to keep yourself from reading it until we were together, alone. I don't know if I would have had enough willpower to do the same." 

Mallory looked at her best friend wordlessly, again feeling her blood race with that strange embarrassment. Suddenly bashful, she flipped to the first block of text with trembling fingers. "Tell me when you're ready for me to turn the page," she whispered. 

Jessi nodded silently, dark eyes flying across the page, her lips pursed. The house was silent all around them, except for the sleepy sighed of the living above them. In their almost perfect silence the only sound was the whisper the pages made as they turned, busily and briefly gossiping, no sound except that sound, no sound except the whistling of their breath as they expelled it and sucked it back in. What surprised Mallory was not the silence; not the way Jessi's hand crept over to hers, but the way the _heat_ spread between them, a searing heat born only by their closeness, as long-dormant hormones flared the sparkling life. 

She felt a finger curl under her chin, tugging, making her head turn in another direction. It was Jessi's finger, and Jessi's face that she was looking into now. Indeed, if eyes were the windows to the soul, then Jessi's eyes reflected the same, glowing heat that she knew glittered in her own eyes. She felt strangely dizzy. 

"I..." a _lot_ of heat. "Jessi, I...." 

Jessi did not reply- at least, not in words. Her finger moved, eyes half-slitted with adoration, to catch a dangling curl of lava-red hair. 

"Mal...." 

A phlegmy cough interrupted them, and they jerked away from each other as if they had touched fire. Mallory, glowing red with embarrassment and guilt, looked around to see the source of the sound. There stood Claire, in the threshold of the doorway, her pajama bottoms hiked up to her knees, dark hair tousled from sleep. She rubbed her eyes, puffy and bleary. She looked at her two sitters warily. 

"Wjat are you two doing?" she asked, suspicious. 

"Reading," Mallory answered hastily, lamely. Maybe a little too hastily. She held up the book as though this was proof, and jumped up before Jessi could say a word. "You shouldn't be up, shouldn't be down here, it's too cold. Let me take you up to bed." 

She cradled Claire's lithe body against her and led her away from the rec room, insides churning with humiliation and shame. She wondered how long she had been there. Wondered how much she had seen. Claire was petulant as she always was when she didn't get her way. 

"You two didn't seem to think it was too cold," she sniffed resentfully to her older sister. 

Mallory smiled palely down at her. She could worry about it later. Now, she wouldn't allow herself to dwell on those strange, exciting moments in the rec room with Jessi. She just couldn't. 

Or maybe she just wanted so desperately to. 


End file.
